Three years after receiving more than $600,000 from TV millionaire and reality show host Marcus Lemonis, Amazing Grapes in Rancho Santa Margarita has closed.

The sudden shutdown of the wine bar earlier this month took many locals by surprise. The restaurant had appeared to rebound after it was featured on Lemonis’ CNBC reality show “The Profit.”

In the show, Lemonis, the chief executive of Camping World, offers his expertise to small troubled businesses. In most episodes, Lemonis makes an offer to save the business by making a cash investment in exchange for a piece of the company and a percentage of the profits. Lemonis has invested more than $40 million in companies featured on the show.

Amazing Grapes opened in 2004, but never turned a profit under its original owners, which included concept visionary Greg Schroeder, who was featured prominently on the episode. The store struggled to stay afloat after the economy tanked in 2008. The owners sought Lemonis’ help.

On the show, Lemonis made a $300,000 investment. He later closed the store and spent roughly $323,000 to make renovations to improve the business, including trimming its vast inventory of wine and adding more dining space.

Amazing Grapes reopened in early February 2014.

Dan Isenhart, wine buyer and managing partner, said the reinvented business operated successfully for about a year and half after Lemonis came to the rescue.

But a couple of years ago, Lemonis and his food company, ML Foods, became difficult to reach, Isenhart wrote in a long goodbye note posted on Facebook.

Isenhart said Lemonis “verbally agreed” about two years ago to expand the kitchen and add two bathrooms when it became necessary to grow the bar because business was booming.

Then, things got “dicey” in fall 2015, he said. Lemonis could not be reached for the next 18 months. “It was becoming evident that the new improvements weren’t going to happen anytime soon,” Isenhart said.

However, in February 2016, The Profit aired a show where Lemonis “checks in” on Amazing Grapes. In the show, Lemonis expressed concern about the decline of craft beer sales — one of the area’s where he had made a big investment. He was also concerned the restaurant was running at less than 40 percent capacity on most weeks.

“We need to have that retail restaurant bar be busier more often,” Lemonis said.

Around the same time — and unrelated to Lemonis — the bar was being sued by former employees. Fighting those suits drained resources for the company. “In April, ML Foods made a decision to stop paying rent on our space. In addition, our vendors also began having to wait to get paid,” said Isenhart, who has been with the company since 2006.

Why didn’t these workers sue Lemonis if he allegedly owned and operated the company?

Isenhart said the employees originally tried to sue Lemonis, but they discovered he didn’t legally own the business. ML Foods never filed the proper paperwork to transfer ownership of the company after “The Profit” aired, he said.

“He did not legally own AG because he dragged his feet and never finished the necessary tenant improvements and ABC license applications that would have allowed a legal ownership transfer to ML Foods and removed any future liability away from the original owners,” Isenhart said.

A representative for Lemonis would not comment on the closure or Isenhart’s Facebook letter. “At this time Marcus isn’t making any comments about Amazing Grapes,” spokesman Branden Stanley told the Register in an email statement.

“Thank you all for friendship, patronage and support for the past 12 years. We are indebted to each of you and we wish the outcome were different. AG was a special place and we wanted and had plans to make it even more special,” Isenhart wrote on a Rancho Santa Margarita Facebook page.

Since investing in Amazing Grapes, Lemonis has featured other Orange County restaurants on The Profit including Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour and Bodhi Leaf Coffee Traders in Orange. He invested in both companies.

With Farrell’s, he took ownership of the brand. The previous executives who owned and operated Farrell’s are no longer with the company.

Lemonis closed the Buena Park Farrell’s in early 2017 to make renovations. The restaurant is expected to open Aug. 5.

Nancy Luna is an award-winning journalist with more than 25 years reporting experience. She's been the Register's restaurant beat writer since 2005, covering some of the biggest players in the industry: In-N-Out, Chipotle, McDonald’s and Taco Bell. Luna also covers dining trends from food halls to food trucks. She writes with authority and is considered an expert in her field.

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